Varkala

Varkala is a small beach resort on the Kerala coast about 100km north of Kanyakumari, the southern most tip of the Indian sub-continent. It's a really nice laid back kind of place that's strung out along the top of the crumbling cliffs that line the back of the beach.

The atmosphere is really nice and much more like Palolem and Anjuna than the package resort hell of Candolim.

We've had a bit of rubbish weather whilst we've been here. However, we feel we can't complain too much over a few days of cloud and a bit of rain when it's been -22 degrees C back home!

We've not done any sight seeing whilst we've been here. Other than a bit of aimless wandering around the cliffs and a spot of sun bathing we've spent most of our time trying to re-arrange our flights home. The booking agent, Terminal A, have the worst customer service of any on-line ticket agent that we've ever used. Getting the money back on our canceled flights is proving to be quite painful. So if anyone asks what our top travel tips are, not using Terminal A is right up there with don't forget your passport.

We've again met up with Leigh and Nicola who were also in Varkala at the same time as us. This was the last time that we'll see them and we were a little sad to have to say goodbye as they've been great company whenever we've crossed paths. They're shortly going to meet up with Leigh's parents who are flying out for a few weeks to do a similar trip around Rajasthan to the one we did with Paul and Sarah back in November.

The Venice of India

Having just left the St Ives of India we now find ourselves in the, self proclaimed, Venice of the east (yes, another one!). We've come to Alappuzha (Alleppey) as it's the gateway town to the infamous Kerala backwaters. The backwaters are a network of rivers, canals, waterways, lagoons and lakes that are on the west coast of India, sandwiched between the Arabian Sea and the mountainous Western Ghats.

Our guide book made Alappuzha sound like some quaint little village, when in reality, it was more like Dudley and bore no resemblance at all to Venice! Thankfully we've had a really nice place to stay called Venice Castle where we've been making the most of having a TV for the first time in while.

In order to explore the backwaters we had originally planned to rent one of the rather swanky looking house boats for an overnight trip.

However, the cost was a bit too high so we ended up downgrading a little to something more in our price range . . . a canoe for four hours.

Our canoe trip through the back waters was very pleasant as we floated through the villages, observing local life and relaxing in our little boat.


It was a very relaxing little jaunt, or it was, until we encountered a monster head-wind on the way back. Our oars man couldn't make any headway so I was forced to break out the spare paddle and give some assistance otherwise we'd still be there now. He wasn't the most smiley guide we've ever had . . .

As nice as it was we don't really understand what all the fuss is about. A trip to the Kerala backwaters is one of the things that often crops up on those "10 things to do before you die" sort of lists. It's definitely worth a visit if you're passing but we wouldn't recommend that you went too far out of your way to come here.

Kathakali

We spent our last evening in Fort Kochi at a kathakali show at the Kerala Kathakali Centre. Kathakali, which translates as "show play", dates from the 1600's and is usually a dramatisation of one of the Hindu epic myths such as the Ramayana, the Mahabharata or the Puranas.

There's no dialogue in the play so the story is told through movement, hand gestures and facial expressions. Prior to the show starting the compare gave a crash course in some of the standard gestures and expressions so that we could understand what was going on (it didn't help much!). We also got to see the elaborate make-up process which transforms the actors into the various gods and deities.



The performers are accompanied by a singer who narrates the story and some drummers, whos main function appeared to be to try and cause some form of permanent hearing damage to the audience. Being as the stories are narrated/sung in Malayalam we were given a cheat sheet which explained the plot - some princes lost their wife in a dice game, had to kill the wife's captor and wash her hair in his blood to set her free (que lots of gore and entrails).

Traditionally kathakali shows would last from early evening until dawn, thankfully we only had to sit through a small exert from the Mahabharata that lasted an hour.

The St Ives of India?

Fort Kochi lies at the tip of a small peninsular that juts out into the Arabian Sea from the south west Indian state of Kerala. The town feels a little bit like an Indian version of St Ives. It's full of wonky old buildings, craft bazaars, antique shops and has a bit of an art and gallery scene going on. There's also loads of little tea rooms where you can get a fresh brew and a slice of cake. They've even managed to get the bad service spot on so that it's just like being back at home!

Kerala has a reputation of being the most laid back state in the whole of India, where everything slips into second gear. This easy going nature is all very well but it appears that the staff in the restaurants take it a little bit too far, getting served anywhere is nigh on impossible. On Sunday night dinner took so long at a restaurant called "Upstairs" that it may have well have been breakfast by the time they got round to serving it.

Despite the fact that you can't get anything to eat the laid back Keralan attitude does make Fort Kochi a nice place to spend a few days. The cantilevered Chinese fishing nets that line the northern tip of the Kochi peninsular are probably the most recognisable sight in Kerala.

The nets, which take at least 4 people to operate, where bought to the area in the 15th century by Chinese traders. We spent a bit of time yesterday helping out (or should that be hindering) on one of the nets. I thought I'd let Liz get on with the heavy manual labour whilst I had the much more tiring job of taking a few photos . . .

Earlier in the day the guys on the net had caught this funny little fella called a frog fish, so called as he gives a frog like croak when prodded!

Kochi is also home to St Francis Church which dates from 1503 and is thought to be the oldest European built church in India.

Vasco da Gama, the legendary Portuguese explorer, died here in 1524 and was buried in the church for 14 years before being moved back to Lisbon.

Earlier today we went over to the eastern side of the peninsular to the district of Mattancherry. Whilst there we paid a visit to Mattancherry Palace, a Portuguese built palace from 1555 which was a gift for the raja of Cochin. The palace is home to some much revered Hindu murals, one of which features, to quote our guidebook, "Krishna using his six hands and two feet to engage in foreplay with eight happy milkmaids" . . . a nice trick if you can do it! Unfortunately the part of the palace with the said mural was under renovation and out of bounds (making a complete waste of our six and a half pence entrance fee). The area around Mattancherry Palace is also known as Jew Town as it is where the Jewish traders set up their businesses in the 1500's. At the centre of Jew Town is the ornate Pardesi Synagogue.

The interior is decorated with a gold pulpit, glass chandeliers and hand-painted Chinese tiles. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take any photos inside.

We've also bumped into Leigh and Nicola again whilst we were here and have arranged to meet them again in Varkala next week.