Kerala: The End of India

"Welcome to Kerala, God's own Country" said the sign. Quite a reputation to live up to thought I, as we stumbled off another long train ride and onto Varkala station. Judging by other holy places in India we've visited, the gods seem to have the same attitude to rubbish and littering as almost every other Indian. Yet, plastic bottles aside, Kerala truly deserves the title it claims. During our two week stay we were the happiest we've been on our travels so far.
Although we must add that Kez and Mike were due to be join us for our Kerala trip but due to extenuating circumstances plans had to change, so this one is for you two, we missed you but you were there in spirit!

First stop, a few days in a Homestay in Varkala village recommended by people we met on the road in Nepal. We enjoyed Varkala so much that we decided to stay a few more days but made a switch to the Cliffs overlooking Varkala beach. Then, getting lost in the lush tropics of the Keralan backwaters on a private boat with our own captain, chef and first mate to take care of us. Finally, after two days of taking laid -back to a whole new high we ended up in the remarkably un-Indian district of Fort Cochin. Home to the famous Portugese explorer Vasco Da Gama, this town was a curious mix of Latin European style and a cornish seaside village with a few auto-rickshaws thrown into the mix. We stayed in a great little homestay called Walton's and got shown around by our adopted rickshaw driver Shaheer.

Here are some photos of our time in Kerala which Sarah is going to comment on:-


Varkala - Lots of fish to be had as you can see by this picture outside one of the restaurants (nb: jane - look how many prawns there are!!)



















The couple Jon (Oz) and Pema (Nepalese) who ran the homestay and Pema offered Tibetian and Nepalese cookery course, this is Andrew during the preparation stage.














We were showed how to make 3 items, one of which was Momo which we had in Nepal, it was so difficult and I was really rubbish, to be fair Pema had been making Momo since the age of 10 so I think that she had the advantage!
















This fruits of our labour - we made Aloo Dum, Vegetable Momo and Tibetian dumplings, Pema also made us a (hot) chilli chutney as we gave up in the kitchen after 3 hours - it had got way too hot in there.










Andrew enjoying the food we cooked







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This is where we stayed on the Cliffs of Varkala, a lovely place called Calfouti


















This is a houseboat in Kollam
















The tour operator we booked our house boat had famous clients, this is Andrew with Richard Branson

















This is the inside of our houseboat

















Scene from the backwaters













Another view of the backwaters, it was really beautiful













The captain of the boat spotted a snake in the water



















Man at work in the backwaters of Kerala













Not too sure what I can say about this photo, self explantory I think!













Men washing in the Keralan backwaters















This is our Captain serving us lunch


















This was our Keralan lunch, it was amazing food, definetly the best Indian food we had experienced during our trip - they use only natural ingredients which follow aurvedyc medicine - we didnt get sick once in Kerala














This is Andrew with our crew, they looked after us so well.

















Man watching the houseboat go by














Glad this wasnt us! This is houseboat which had sunk about 1 year ago













On the 2nd evening we pulled in for the night and enjoyed our evening meal with this lovely sunset (and lots of bugs)














This was our superb homestay in Fort Cochin, possible the best accomodation we have had in India, especially for the price



















Me in Teapot restaurant, a quaint tea room in Fort Cochin

















The chinese fishing nets in Fort Cochin


















Andrew in Teapot, Fort Cochin















This is a store room for Chilli's - it must be a very hot room!


















Me and Shaheen in his tuk-tuk doing a whistlestop tour of Fort Cochin. He was a very clever driver - he offered us a much reduced taxi on our taxi to the train station if we went into 10 shops as he got 65 rupees from each shop owner, we didnt mind and in fact we had great fun, plus they all had a/c so there were the coolest place in Fort Cochin. He made 650 rupees so he was a happy man, we were glad to help him - he was saving towards a brand new tuk-tuk


We went to watch a traditional Keralan dance, Kathakali. If you go before you can watch them putting on their makeup as in this picture


















Demonstration of Kathakali movements















This is the scene from the Kathakali dance















We had a wicked time in Kerala however it was time to move on, our time in India had come to an end. We had one final long train journey to our final destination of Trichy to pick up our flight out of India to Kuala Lumpar, Malaysia where we were excited to start our brand new adventure in South East Asia.

Bye Bye (for now) Andrew and Sarah xx








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