Kerala 11th – 15th of August
A long time before the Independence Day of India which is the 15th of August, we thought about taking a day of at this day and spending an extending weekend in Kerala. Kerala is one of the states of India and is located in the Southeast of India. It is also called Godown’s country coz of its beautiful and breathtaking landscape. Well, but unfortunately we haven’t come to a decision early enough. Hence, the train to Cochin which is the capital of Kerala was completely booked out.
Anyway, we would have only booked “Sleeper” to go there, coz it takes about 10 hours by train to go there. So what else to do? Ewa arranged a private bus which was supposed to be a very simple furnished bus. And yes, she was right. All together we were 21 people in the bus and now guess how many seats were in the bus? Exactly twenty one. So you can imagine how much space each of us had, especially when you take into consideration that each of us had at least one baggage with him. As for me I felt like sitting in a shoe carton also due the big guy to my left. Yes, I mean you Bijoy. You are definitely to big for such a bus ;-). During the whole journey I was pushed at the window by him. Very uncomfortable, believe me. But nevertheless, I am wondering, how I could catch quite a good many sleep, at least six hours in a row. So he first time I woke up was in the dawn. On the further way, I could fall asleep every now and then. What was very strange is once we entered Kerala there was rain, really hard rain. No wonder, ok, it is monsoon time, but the rain changed with sun and then it went back and forth, really strange. When we finally arrived in Aleppey which is located 80km in the South of Cochin, is was already 4.30pm. 
Hence, we spent almost 17 hours in the bus, less some peeing breaks. We could catch still some views of the famous boat race which is taken place once a year in Aleppey. About 50 men sit in each boat and row. The crowd was amazing when the competition started. They were screaming and shouting, maybe also due to the fact that quite a lot of the men around us were drunk. I couldn’t see any woman. I don’t know if is prohibited to women to attend to the boat race. After the boat race we checked in and had a dinner in a restaurant and as for me I went to bed early. The following day we spent on a house boat. The boats were built for five or six people at the most. So we had to divide ourselves into groups of six and five people. I share one boat with Simon, Ewa, Karolina and Reinier. The rain accompanied us during our whole stay on the boat. We crossed the backwaters of Alleppey. Its landscape is so unique, incredible. For those who have already been to Venice, it is similar, but in comparison to Venice, in Kerala you have no buildings around.
Instead of that you are entirely surrounded by nature and nothing else. The people live in little cottages and washing their laundry in the backwaters. Every now and then, you find little shops at the shore. In one of these shops we stopped and bought some coconuts. When the people move, they always move using a boat, either a big one, which is then I would say comparable to a bus or their own private boat (car). During our stay on the house boat we had a lunch as well as a dinner and some snacks in between. It was very. The rest of the time on the boat we spent with chatting and making fun, although or maybe because it was raining most of the time.
Before we had dinner some of us ventured to have a bath in the backwater. Actually, I also felt like having a bath. But I was uncertain about the safety regarding bacteria and animals. You never know what is inside. So, I remained reasonable and left dry although the others tried to persuade me. After we had dinner, all the others came to our house boat where we then celebrated a little party with music and some drinks. Unfortunately our neighbours didn’t want to be disturbed so we had to finish the party before 11pm. But nevertheless we had a nice party, even though it was too short.
The next morning then we just went back from were we started our little journey in the backwaters. But what next? We decided to go to Cochin. Deniz has been there before and told us that it would be definitely worth visiting. In Cochin we had to take a ferry to Fort Kochi which is a little island but belongs nevertheless to Cochin. Cochin consists of several islands. The main part which is on the land is called Ernakulam. In Fort Kochi then we had to find an appropriate accommodation. It was pretty difficult coz in order to check-in a lot of hotels required a passport including the visa. And unfortunately, not all of us had their passport with them. But, you can keep calm, of course, we found an accommodation.
We then had lunch close to the sea. Deniz ordered craps, as for me and the others, we just ate the normal food like rice. It was quite interesting to watch him eating the craps. But for sure, he was still hungry afterwards coz there is not much meat around a crap and in addition to that it is quite a lot of work to open it so probably he was more exhausted than saturated. But for dinner I decided to have sea food as well. In the evening we attended to the famous Kathakali Theatre. It is a kind of theatre including dancing and singing of the actors who are disguised in gorgeous dressings. But not the actors sing, it is a man in the background who sings. If you are capable of understanding the language you understand the contents. If not, you are more or less lost, coz there is only a little introduction about the meaning of movements and emotions expressed by the actors. I tried to recognize some of them but I didn’t. Anyhow, it was an exciting performance. Simon and me went out for dinner alone coz in the restaurant we all wanted to have 
dinner, they didn’t want to prepare our sea food we bought just a few minutes before. I had 18 prawns. I tell you what, I have never eaten such a good sea food before. Some of the prawns were still alive when I bought them – incredible, isn’t it? The next morning then was Independence Day in India. The Indians celebrated their independence from the British government. Sixty years ago, it was Mahatma Gandhi who brought independence to India. For that reason, you find Mahatma Gandhi on each bank note and in probably every Indian city one big road is called Mahatma Gandhi Road. Unfortunately we didn’t see much of the celebrations. In the early morning, Deniz, Simon and me stood up in order to see the fishermen selling their sea food on the shore. It was impressive seeing them coming from the sea and selling the sea food just next to the shore. It is a kind of stock market as I know it from Germany. The fishermen just threw the alive fishes on the floor and then there was a guy shouting and offering the fishes to the restaurant owners. Before we took the ferry back to Ernakulam we paid a visit to a part of Fort Kochi, called Jew town.
In former days a lot of Jews lived there. We visited the Synagogue but there was nothing really interesting to see. After having had a lunch we went to the ferry station where we then took the ferry to Ernakulam. In Ernakulam we were already awaited by our two bus drivers. Immediately we took off for Bangalore. From now on, we had an horrid trip ahead us with as for me, nearly no sleep at all. When we arrived in Bangalore at 6am, I could hardly walk any more. Although, it was really an exhausting trip to Kerala, it was worth the trouble. And maybe, I gonna go there again, coz as the citizen told, there is supposed to be a very nice beach on one of the other islands.
Anyway, we would have only booked “Sleeper” to go there, coz it takes about 10 hours by train to go there. So what else to do? Ewa arranged a private bus which was supposed to be a very simple furnished bus. And yes, she was right. All together we were 21 people in the bus and now guess how many seats were in the bus? Exactly twenty one. So you can imagine how much space each of us had, especially when you take into consideration that each of us had at least one baggage with him. As for me I felt like sitting in a shoe carton also due the big guy to my left. Yes, I mean you Bijoy. You are definitely to big for such a bus ;-). During the whole journey I was pushed at the window by him. Very uncomfortable, believe me. But nevertheless, I am wondering, how I could catch quite a good many sleep, at least six hours in a row. So he first time I woke up was in the dawn. On the further way, I could fall asleep every now and then. What was very strange is once we entered Kerala there was rain, really hard rain. No wonder, ok, it is monsoon time, but the rain changed with sun and then it went back and forth, really strange. When we finally arrived in Aleppey which is located 80km in the South of Cochin, is was already 4.30pm. 
Hence, we spent almost 17 hours in the bus, less some peeing breaks. We could catch still some views of the famous boat race which is taken place once a year in Aleppey. About 50 men sit in each boat and row. The crowd was amazing when the competition started. They were screaming and shouting, maybe also due to the fact that quite a lot of the men around us were drunk. I couldn’t see any woman. I don’t know if is prohibited to women to attend to the boat race. After the boat race we checked in and had a dinner in a restaurant and as for me I went to bed early. The following day we spent on a house boat. The boats were built for five or six people at the most. So we had to divide ourselves into groups of six and five people. I share one boat with Simon, Ewa, Karolina and Reinier. The rain accompanied us during our whole stay on the boat. We crossed the backwaters of Alleppey. Its landscape is so unique, incredible. For those who have already been to Venice, it is similar, but in comparison to Venice, in Kerala you have no buildings around.
Instead of that you are entirely surrounded by nature and nothing else. The people live in little cottages and washing their laundry in the backwaters. Every now and then, you find little shops at the shore. In one of these shops we stopped and bought some coconuts. When the people move, they always move using a boat, either a big one, which is then I would say comparable to a bus or their own private boat (car). During our stay on the house boat we had a lunch as well as a dinner and some snacks in between. It was very. The rest of the time on the boat we spent with chatting and making fun, although or maybe because it was raining most of the time.
Before we had dinner some of us ventured to have a bath in the backwater. Actually, I also felt like having a bath. But I was uncertain about the safety regarding bacteria and animals. You never know what is inside. So, I remained reasonable and left dry although the others tried to persuade me. After we had dinner, all the others came to our house boat where we then celebrated a little party with music and some drinks. Unfortunately our neighbours didn’t want to be disturbed so we had to finish the party before 11pm. But nevertheless we had a nice party, even though it was too short.The next morning then we just went back from were we started our little journey in the backwaters. But what next? We decided to go to Cochin. Deniz has been there before and told us that it would be definitely worth visiting. In Cochin we had to take a ferry to Fort Kochi which is a little island but belongs nevertheless to Cochin. Cochin consists of several islands. The main part which is on the land is called Ernakulam. In Fort Kochi then we had to find an appropriate accommodation. It was pretty difficult coz in order to check-in a lot of hotels required a passport including the visa. And unfortunately, not all of us had their passport with them. But, you can keep calm, of course, we found an accommodation.
We then had lunch close to the sea. Deniz ordered craps, as for me and the others, we just ate the normal food like rice. It was quite interesting to watch him eating the craps. But for sure, he was still hungry afterwards coz there is not much meat around a crap and in addition to that it is quite a lot of work to open it so probably he was more exhausted than saturated. But for dinner I decided to have sea food as well. In the evening we attended to the famous Kathakali Theatre. It is a kind of theatre including dancing and singing of the actors who are disguised in gorgeous dressings. But not the actors sing, it is a man in the background who sings. If you are capable of understanding the language you understand the contents. If not, you are more or less lost, coz there is only a little introduction about the meaning of movements and emotions expressed by the actors. I tried to recognize some of them but I didn’t. Anyhow, it was an exciting performance. Simon and me went out for dinner alone coz in the restaurant we all wanted to have 
dinner, they didn’t want to prepare our sea food we bought just a few minutes before. I had 18 prawns. I tell you what, I have never eaten such a good sea food before. Some of the prawns were still alive when I bought them – incredible, isn’t it? The next morning then was Independence Day in India. The Indians celebrated their independence from the British government. Sixty years ago, it was Mahatma Gandhi who brought independence to India. For that reason, you find Mahatma Gandhi on each bank note and in probably every Indian city one big road is called Mahatma Gandhi Road. Unfortunately we didn’t see much of the celebrations. In the early morning, Deniz, Simon and me stood up in order to see the fishermen selling their sea food on the shore. It was impressive seeing them coming from the sea and selling the sea food just next to the shore. It is a kind of stock market as I know it from Germany. The fishermen just threw the alive fishes on the floor and then there was a guy shouting and offering the fishes to the restaurant owners. Before we took the ferry back to Ernakulam we paid a visit to a part of Fort Kochi, called Jew town.
In former days a lot of Jews lived there. We visited the Synagogue but there was nothing really interesting to see. After having had a lunch we went to the ferry station where we then took the ferry to Ernakulam. In Ernakulam we were already awaited by our two bus drivers. Immediately we took off for Bangalore. From now on, we had an horrid trip ahead us with as for me, nearly no sleep at all. When we arrived in Bangalore at 6am, I could hardly walk any more. Although, it was really an exhausting trip to Kerala, it was worth the trouble. And maybe, I gonna go there again, coz as the citizen told, there is supposed to be a very nice beach on one of the other islands.
posted by Thorsten at 9:17 PM
1 Comments:
Hey old man,
really nice blog you have there! But where is the new entry you have been threatening me more than two weeks before? I´m still waiting! ;o)
Cheers from your fellow Robertsonite,
Daniel
§:o)
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