India

Communist bridge

Church

Strolling dotis

Repairs

Odd shop

Shallot seller

Billboard

Iron Lady

Stall

Man in doti

Biker

Washing day

Kiosk

For a 10 minute period on the road between Periyar and the backwaters I noted down some of the sights along the way. This pretty much sums up what Kerala is all about. The pictures I’ve added were taken at various locations throughout our trip

Man with an umbrella wearing a doti
Tuk Tuks galore
Bananas
Pineapples
Policeman trying to direct the traffic
Colourful ladies in saris
Big pots
A modern parish church
Ladies with pots on their heads
Trucks laden with giant logs
Brickworks
Skinny man under a bus repairing it
Christmas star decorations
Lovely house with plant filled verandah
Car crashed into a tree
Billboards
Decorated trucks
Garden centre called Ozone Agro
Rubber trees
Bread World Bakery and Ice Cream parlour
Communist party signs CIPM
Coconut palms
Old bearded man with a sack of potatoes on his head
A jogger
Buses with open windows (no glass) full of students
Yams
Pilgrims dressed in just an orange doti
A tree fallen down
Colourful plastic water pots

In addition to this I noticed that the Keralans are very keen on a roadside slogan. Here are some of my favourites:

‘Never miss a chance to dance’. Side of a bus in New Cochin

‘Accidents bring tears, safety brings cheers’ Bridge in Kottayam

‘Hit first, hit hard, keep hitting’ . The Naval base in Cochin

So much for a good nights sleep. It turned out that the air conditioning in our luxury new room didn’t work at all. Whereas we thought we’d been trying to lower the temperature, we’d actually been heating the room up to 28 degrees. How lovely. We did have an efficient couple of fans but they were so noisy I had to put my earplugs in to try and block out the sound. With blocked up ears and a blocked nose, it made for another uncomfortable and disturbed night.
I lay there worrying that if the homestay was this bad what on earth would a houseboat be like. We’d heard nothing but horror stories since we’d been here about the mosquitos so, when we woke up, I asked Jane the question ‘Do you think we should cancel the houseboat and just see if we can book in early to the hotel on the beach?’. I was just really worried that the experience was going to be a nightmare. However, Jane immediately responded and said ‘No, we are going to do this.’
And so we did and thank goodness because it was absolutely the highlight of the holiday and one of the best things I have ever done.
After a relaxing morning on the verandah at the homestay, we were once again collected by Vaiju who then drove us the 45mins to the boat departure point. We really weren’t sure what to expect at all so it was nice to arrive at a quiet spot where there were just three of the beautiful houseboats lined up waiting for us. After a short explanation we were introduced to our crew of three. The chef- Sippy, the Captain- Tommy and my favourite Vishu, general assistant.
We were soon on board and setting off. These houseboats- or Kettavallam- are the boats that in past times ploughed the waterways transporting rice from the paddy fields and spices to the ports. They’re made from traditional materials and are absolutely beautiful. Luckily for us they’re also fitted with some lovely mod cons. Quiet, efficient air conditioning in the luxurious bedroom. Mosquito net over the comfy bed and a lovely separate bathroom with hot water. Oh this was going to be alright!
We sat at the front of the boat , just behind Captain Tommy, shaded from the sun and starting to relax with a lovely tasty pineapple and ginger smoothie.
From that moment on it was just brilliant. We were served some of the best food we’d had in Kerala including lake fish and my new favourite, prawns! To start with, we made our way across the wide Lake Vembanad and then along various wide waterways which were much more open and with very little habitation. It was very quiet and with very few other boats around and we were surrounded by electric green paddy fields and coconut palms.
It was lovely to just float along and look for the various birds along the way. Vishu in particular, was really good at steering the boat so that we could see the birds. We used the provided ‘Birds of Kerala’ book to identify and list what we were seeing.
In the later afternoon we were able to creep out into the sunshine and lounge about on the cushions at the very front of the boat. But we couldn’t sit still, there was so much to see. As it got later we floated down some narrower and busier waterways where there was more of a village scene to view.
We made it to our mooring point for the night just in time to watch the sunset. It actually made we cry a little bit as the sun set behind three coconut trees. It was time to crack open the beers from the Government shop! Thank goodness for them, as they don’t serve alcohol on the houseboats. We then sat in the open boat as darkness closed in with lanterns providing the light as we ate our dinner, yet more lovely tasty food. It was now that I thought we might have trouble with mosquitos but a traditional anti mosi coil seemed to do the job as we got no bites here at all. There were just two other boats within reach of us and it was lovely and peaceful as we retired to bed.
And yes we did sleep very well thankyou but were up early the next day (to the sound of the birds) excited to see what it looked like in the early morning. Jane was up first but she soon came back to tell me that I needed to get up and come and look. It was incredibly peaceful and the water now looked silvery in the early morning sunlight. On the horizon we could see several fisherman in their narrow, wooden canoes dredging the bottom with small nets on long poles.
We had a lovely breakfast, including a nice potato curry and then we were soon on our way. It took just an hour to get to where we’d left off yesterday. Again, we were busy looking at the birds and taking photos of all the different ways the fishermen made the most of these productive waters.
We both agreed that we’d have liked and extra night on the houseboat but really it had been just perfect. As we disembarked we said our farewells and thankyous to our lovely crew.
I once said of train travel in Northern India ‘Never, ever catch an overnight sleeper train to anywhere.’ But now I have to say ‘Always, always catch a houseboat when in Kerala.’

Anyway, enough of the fellow travellers, let’s get back to the Backwaters! After our really, really rough nights sleep it was good to get up and sit out on the shady verandah to have our breakfast. The fan above our heads was already whirring as the temperature in the sun must have been up in the high 80s. That day Jane and I had two plans to explore the local village , on the recommendation of the other guests. In the morning we’d take a short walk around the block to see the local village life and in the afternoon we’d go out in the traditional wooden canoe which enables you to explore the narrow waterways that the bigger houseboats just won’t get to.
Well, what a fantastic day we had! The walk around the village took us along narrow paths wide enough only for bicycles and mopeds and we slowly wandered about greeting all the locals we met. As always they were all incredibly friendly and whilst they’re not all desperate to get in your photos down here in Kerala, like they were in the north, they are more than happy to have their photos taken.
Early on in the walk I wasn’t sure I’d be able to carry on because my banana belly was really painful. But after a short break sitting on a wall I was able to carry on. Banana belly is not as bad as Delhi belly but it is painful and seemed to require me to mostly be sitting or lying down.
The colours and reflections here in the water are beautiful and it was just what I’d wanted to see here so it was great. We saw lots of lovely birds whilst we were out and especially Kingfishers which are quite large and vivid blue out here. They sit on the wires which run across the waterways helpfully making them easy to spot. The other favourite sight is of people using the river to wash everything from pots, to clothes and even themselves. I think by the time we’d finished we taken photos of pretty much everyone’s washing on the line.
After a light lunch and a short rest lying on a swinging day bed on the verandah, it was time for our 4pm canoe boat ride with Vashu. He is a tiny little 75 year old man who had worked for Xavier all his life and their fathers had done the same before this. He said hardly a word and looked very stern most of the time and he would be punting our canoe along today. Poor chap. He’d carried my suitcase in, which was probably about as big as he is, on his head the previous day so he wasn’t going to be daunted by this. Ekaterina had done the same trip in the morning and said we shouldn’t expect him to be pointing out birds or anything else of interest to us but it would be very peaceful.
And indeed it was. We set off in the long heavy, wooden canoe directly from the steps into the waterway in the homestay garden and slowly, slowly Vashu glided us along. The waterways here are mostly very narrow and quiet and they are tributaries of the Meenachal River. They’re surrounded by lush vegetation and coconut and banana trees. The waters aren’t that clean but you do pass people swimming in it joyfully after a long, hard day at work or school to cool down.
You may have heard of this river and if you have it’s probably because you’ve read Arundhati Roy’s Booker prize winning novel ‘The God of Small things’ . I’ve been reading this during our trip and seeing the place it is set in has really brought it to life, which is good because back home I was finding it a tough read! It’s become easy to picture the characters in this book (Ammu, Mammachi, Esthappen and Rahel and the Paradise Pickle and Preserve Company) going about their ill fated lives.
One of the highlights of our canoe trip came as we approached the village and suddenly we realised that the ‘normal’ blaring of music from the back of a tuk tuk wasn’t the communist party chanting like it ‘normally’ is but religious music. Along the riverbank at 5pm on a Wednesday there was a Catholic Church procession going on which most of the village seemed to have joined. We boated alongside them and although they were taking it quite seriously, I managed to get a shy wave and smile out of a few of them.
When we were ready to go back, after about an hour we just had to tell Vashu to ‘go back’ and then he did just that. It had been an absolutely awesome day. That evening we spent with Linda, the children’s author and then we also swapped rooms to the newer block hoping to get a bit of sleep. Hurrah!

Our new dentist!

The next morning we were on the go again and after another breakfast of dosa, banana and almost certainly pineapple and homemade honey, we said our farewells and got on the road at about 9-30. We learned over breakfast that the previous night’s storm was now officially being called a cyclone and it even had a name -Okhi. The local news was warning that this was going to continue to wreak havoc over Kerala, Tamil Nadu and the Lakshwadeep islands for the next few days. Oh goody…but at least the news was also full of helpful tips of dos and dont’s in a cyclone (see photos)
Our next stop was Periyar and Jane had asked me what the journey to Periyar would be like. I had to confess I had no idea but I thought Periyar would be down a bit from these great heights. The weather up here was still cool and cloudy but we got some spectacular views as we set off down the same road we’d seen all the tea pickers the day before. This road was tiny and extremely downhill and bendy. To start with we drove through lots of tourist accommodation offering jeep safaris and elephant rides. But as we got lower it became more remote and for once there was little along the wayside , except jungle!
The road was fairly precarious and it soon became apparent just how much damage the cyclone had done as we saw many trees and branches down and in places these had fallen either across the road or pulled down power cables with them. I think it was lucky that we’d not been trying to do this journey the day before because by now at least, the people were busy clearing things up and making repairs. No wonder the electricity and wifi at the Rose Garden was so bad and we now felt slightly guilty that we thought they’d merely been rationing us!
After about three and a half hours we made it to Periyar. Along the way we stopped once for a brief unsavoury toilet break and bought a bag of poppadums for later. We had nothing else on our itinerary today and we were looking forward to being back in a luxury hotel, The Spice Garden. So Vaiju dropped us off and in we skipped. This place is quite a big resort but it had a slight feel of an upmarket holiday camp to it. Upon arrival we were told about the list of activities they had going on and they seemed to informatively label everything. The swimming pool looked inviting but as it was still rather damp and cloudy here and the water was cold, I decided even I wasn’t going to try it.
That afternoon we decided to have a venture into town by ourselves but there were mostly just tourist tat shops selling all the same things and at a higher price than Cochin. We did, however, enjoy shopping for gifts in the toy shack. Lucky children!
After a while we were too hot and bothered so we called it a day and returned to the enclave. Now the really good thing about this hotel is that it has a fabulous bar. It’s called ‘Woods Bar’ and is named after the Englishman who was the head ranger at Periyar Tiger Reserve back in the times when the English ruled. The room was filled with old photos of tiger hunts on elephant back and men in pith helmets etc. It had a full sized snooker table and a photo of the Duke of Kent playing on it when he had visited. Jane and I enjoyed a beer in here and met some chaps from Liverpool, via the Greek Islands, who told us about how, since they’re now retired, they spend months on end just wandering around India. It sounds great but I’m not sure that’s for me!
Later than expected because of all our chatting, Jane and enjoyed an excellent meal in the hotel’s ’50 miles around’ restaurant. The concept is that everything you eat has come from within fifty miles of the hotel. Here we ate stuffed ladies fingers (okra) and then various Keralan vegetables dishes, followed by the most delicious local pudding which was like a coconut pannacota/soufflé. Very nice indeed.
The next day we were up and ready to explore more of Periyar and we started off by having a tour of a spice garden. Not another one- I hear you say. Yes, and in fact we said the same thing but went along with it anyway as it seems it would be quite short and we didn’t want to be rude. So, off we went and met up with Sajid , our guide for the tour. It was quite a small scale garden compared to Jose’s rubber plantation but Sajid was particularly good at pointing out the medicinal benefits of all the plants. By the time we’d finished we knew what to do if we got anything from a common sore throat, arthritis, upset tummy, ladies problems and even cancer. He was a really sweet chap who showed us lovely pictures of his wife and kids and explained to us why, unlike lots of other Keralan people, he didn’t want to work abroad. He said that he loved where he worked, he didn’t want to be away from his family and he got to meet lots of people from around the world and learn from them as a guide. I don’t think you can knock his logic.
Anyway, after doing some quality shopping here (more gifts, lucky people!) we decided that we couldn’t really come to Periyar without at least visiting the tiger reserve. It seemed a bit odd that this wasn’t on our itinerary but Vaiju explained that we wouldn’t see any animals. Don’t put him in charge of sales here.
Still we decided we would just go for the boat ride, even though I’d read about it online and it sounded hellish. So we caught the little rickety bus that took us and all the Indian tourists to the boat landing. Nobody was impressed by my attempts to get them to sing my song about going to see a Tiger, especially Jane.
Once at the boat landing we were told that we would be on the 1-45 boat which meant we had an hour and 15 mins to wait. Still there were some nice seats we could relax on. Until the monkey mafia moved in. Then we spent the rest of the time being terrorised by monkeys as they sat around looking menacing and then moved in as a gang to try and grab anything they could including water bottles or your video camera. At one point I’d been sort of laughing at an Indian family braving it out when unbeknownst to me one jumped on the backpack on my back and made me very cross. They were even terrorising people in the inside bit and when Jane questioned this with the security guard, she said ‘This, monkey area.’ As if to say, they were here first, what do you want me to do about it?
Fair enough. Basically, I could not wait to get on that boat. Even though I’d been looking at it and felt it may have a few Health and Safety issues. Starting with the fact that it looked like it had been built in the 1920s and hadn’t undergone an MOT since. As soon as they announced boarding everyone rushed in an unorderly fashion to get on, even though we had numbered seats. Once on, we were all instructed to don our orange life vests and that’s how we sat for the whole one and a half hour trip. Plus , we were instructed not to stand up! I’m sure this was probably a good thing because if we had seen an elephant I’m not sure the boat would have coped with the rush of people to the left!
Needless to say, we didn’t see tigers or elephants but the Sambol deer and cormorants were rather splendid!
The day ended well, as in the rickety bus back out of the park, Jane got chatting with a nice lady who gave her her business card and offered to do our dental treatment next time we were in India.

The next day the situation with the electric hadn’t improved , it was really intermittent. We had another lovely breakfast of pancakes, bananas, pineapple and honey served in an old Gin bottle!
Then we went out with Vaiju in the car for our morning visit to the tea museum and plantations. By now the weather had slightly improved and as we drove upto Munnar it became very clear why we were here. The views of the mountains and the tea plantations way exceeded my expectations. It really was stunning.
We visited the tea museum with Ansell our guide and watched a short film about the history of tea production in the area and how the English had bought land concessions and using the shy local tribal people’s skills learned to plant tea. Ansell then gave us an explanation of how they process the tea. This was all very nice and we even enjoyed a cuppa but Jane and I really wanted to be out in the plantations taking pictures. It seems we were not allowed to do this, possibly because of the bad weather and it being (too dangerous) but Ansell did take us for a great walk up a small road which passed through the tea pickers village which we loved. He was also really good at pointing out the birds we passed which included a red whiskered bulbul, a shrike, sunbirds and plenty of others I can’t remember!
Next stop was the manufacturing centre which Tata tea company have set up for Differently Abled young people to work. So we had a tour of the paper making plant and the dying centre. It was interesting and we were particularly impressed that Starbucks in Mumbai had put in a massive order for bags from here. Good on ’em as it was a v good cause. We did our own bit to help by visiting the shop.
After this we met up with Vaiju again and he drove us back down to Munnar town itself where Ansell gave us a short tour round, mostly of the fruit and veg market and then what he called the main bazaar. The town was very busy as it was apparently going to be a festival of some sort the next day so town was packed with the local tribal people (the shy ones from the forest) and they were strikingly different, very small, very dark and with facial features of Australian aborigines. The girls had also decorated their hair with pretty flower pieces.
After a brief stop at his office, so we could hook up to wifi and touch base with civilisation, he started driving us back to the homestay but suddenly we came across a tea field where the pickers were at work so Jane and I got out and we merrily skipped down the road towards them taking the pictures we’d really wanted to get. They were all really friendly and didn’t mind at all the strange English ladies, happy as Larry in the rain.
We then decided we were rather hungry and needed lunch even though it was about 3-30pm . We decided the posh hotel Vaiju took us to to start with saying we only wanted something small, where he would eat. So the. We stopped at what looked like a Vegetarian fast food place where, although it looked unpromising and empty when we went in, we ate some great food. A buttered bhaji (basically a bun) with some sauce and then a huge pile of vegetable pakora and some tasty homemade French fries on the side. Yum.
Then it was back to the homestay where after a nice rest we had another lovely meal and this time there were 12 of us eating. Pudding was always bananas, out of the garden of course.

The next day it was time to leave our lovely hotel Malabar House and we had an early departure at 6.30am. This was because we were keen to see the elephants being washed in the river on the way to our next stop. Joyce and Enid had seen this and their pictures were fabulous but when I looked it up in the internet I found out that the elephant camp had moved and it was doubtful that they still did the river bathing at the new camp.
Still our travel agents arranged for this saying that we needed to be there for 7.30am, hence the early start. Vaiju drove us all the way out of the city past the airport again and then on gradually more and more remote roads. It took about two hours to get there and near the end Vaiju had to keep stopping and asking the locals ‘Elephants?’ and they generally pointed down the road. It didn’t look like the locals had seen too many foreigners down here before…hm.
So we arrived on time at the Kodanad Elephant camp. It didn’t actually open until 8am so we waited whilst a few people slouched up for work. We were needless to say the ONLY people waiting to go in. Vaiju sort of directed us in and there was no further instruction to be had, other than we could visit the Butterfly Garden, the Deer Park and then the Elephant camp. It all seemed rather odd and I asked ‘Are the elephants just in here? Are they behind a wall of some sort?’ Vaiju never really answered that but encouraged us in by ourselves.
So first we walked through the butterfly garden which wasn’t very impressive. All very interesting but we decided it was time to go and see the big stuff so we carried on up a track. After a while we came to said Elephant camp where I suppose there was some sort of washing going on. There were just 4-5 very sad looking elephants chained up and their mahouts were either brushing up around them, cleaning up their dung or one was hosing down the ground around his elephant. I’m sure the elephants have been rescued from far worse conditions but they were swaying backwards and forwards so it was rather distressing. We decided to make a swift exit.

Our other stop today was the famous Thattekad Bird Sanctuary. Our tour notes describe this as having a rich variety of forest and water birds. Once again we appeared to be the only people visiting but it was still quite early. It didn’t start promisingly though when we were first directed to some small cages and told that there was a peacock in there. Even better there was a King Cobra in another cage…those of you who know Jane will know that this is never going to be top of her must see list! It was all very poor and sad especially the porcupine who was also in a cage. We didn’t even realise it was a porcupine , as I told Jane ‘There’s some sort of animal in here but it’s sick or I think it may even be dead’. We quickly decided to move on and visit their butterfly garden. This was more impressive with lots of lovely flowers and indeed butterflies. The nice lady showed us some chrysalis too.
Next we moved on to try and find some birdlife but there was no map or clue as to where we ought to go so we wandered around aimlessly in the heat and humidity. We found a bit of a dried up lake and riverbed where the sign said ‘Boating’ but by the look of the boats, which were about 12 feet above any water , I don’t think anyone had been boating here since the 70s. And of course there was not a single bird to be seen anywhere! So disappointed we made our way back to the car via the cages where by now some monkeys were entertaining the local tourists. We also decided to make use of their ‘facilities’ which left a bit to be desired.
After this second v poor experience of the day we then drove onto our Homestay, the Mundackal Estate. This was really, really remote and again Vaiju had trouble finding it. In the end it was about a mile from any sort of road up a bumpy stone track through the rubber plantation. However, when we arrived the house was stunning with beautifully manicured gardens and we were greeted by the lovely Jose, his wife Daisy and there son George. Once again, all Indian but with I guess Keralan Christian names. Our room here was fairly basic but lovely and air conditioned. We ate a massive lunch prepared by Daisy and then had a rest. At 4pm we met the other guests who were staying here , Americans Cynthia and Janet, sisters from Boston and California. We all got taken on a guided tour of the estate by Jose. It was great seeing everything they grew from ginger, coconuts, yams, guava, bananas, pineapple, nutmeg, cinnamon, peppercorns, chillis, curry plant, tapioca, mangos, cocoa and coffee to name a few. He was also very entertaining so we had great fun. It was beginning to get dark as we visited, in his truck, the best bit which were the rubber trees and here we learned how they tap the trees, collect the latex, take it back to the processing plant, put it through a mangle to remove all the water and finally smoke it. The buildings this was done in were really, really old fashioned as was the equipment he used. At one point the mangle stopped (it was electric) and I just knew that to fix it Jose would take a spanner to it and hit the cogs hard. He didn’t let me down but sadly he couldn’t get it to work.
After this we went back to the house and then ate another fine meal which included lots of ingredients from the garden. All delicious! Then we got chatting to the Americans , so much so that at one point Jose turned the lights off and we took that as our cue to go to bed. The day had improved no end!