Journey to Valkala or was it Valhalla

Apologies for the fact that there no photos on this posting as we have not found a PC terminal in Valkala that will let us download photos from our camera.

Some days you just have to go with the flow. This was the case on Monday 22 Feb. We had planned this day to be a transport free day after our trip into the mountains in the jeep. This was not be the case however as we learned from a rickshaw driver that on Tuesday there was to be a bus strike. The only way out of Munnar is by bus and we really did not want to wait until Wednesday to leave for Valkala.

We checked the strike story with the manager at the bus stand and learned that it was true. We decided to get the 16.30 bus to Kotayam and then get a connection to Valkala. We packed our stuff in record time under thirty minutes and then checked out. The guys at the SMM guest house were so helpful. They let us leave our packs with them and we went to the local working mans cafe (tin shack) where we had a lovely Thali lunch. This place apart from the Indian Coffee house in Alleppey was our favourite place to eat. Good honest Indian food at realistic prices, lunch was Rs78 for both of us. Dosai and porrata prepared and cooked in full view. Lovely.

So, we waited for our bus, it arrived, it was very full. we struggled on wearing our packs and then as soon as I had my foot on the step the bus was off. We were falling all over the place thanks to the weight of the packs on our backs, thank goodness Indian people are so patient and tolerant. I lost count of how many times we said sorry for stepping on someones toes or falling into someone. It is hard work trying to keep your balance and hang on when the bus is going full pelt down twisting roads. We thought ok when the bus stops at the next stop we will take the packs off and sort ourselves out a bit. Um, the theory was good but was actually a rubbish plan. We had not taken into account the people getting off the packed bus and those also getting on factored in with the drivers zeal to not waste a nano second.

Eventually, several stops later, and now feeling exhausted Rae bagged a seat with the help of a kindly gentleman who helped her stow her pack. I continued to stand and when the bus became slightly less busy I too took my pack off and eventually sat next to Rae. The drive down the mountains was a white knuckle ride. It beats any fair ground ride we have been on! The scenery though was magnificent and we saw a couple of monkeys!

There was a beautiful sunset. As we descended to lower altitudes so the air became hotter and more humid. We started to drive in built-up areas and after a five hour ride were were at Kotyam bus stand where we discovered the connecting bus was not due to leave until 06.40 the next morning! We stood looking bemused, tired, very sweaty  when a couple of Indian guys asked if we were ok. Rae switched on her charm and explained the situation to them. One of the guys got his cell phone and rang the train station and said that there is a train to Valkala at 01.30. We thanked them for their kindness and we found ourselves a rickshaw driver. Within 20 minutes we were at the station where we now had to wait until 12.30 before we could buy a ticket. We sat outside as it was cooler than inside the station. I went and bought us some coffee and Indian sweets, they are so delicious. We struck-up conversation with Indian guys also waiting to buy train tickets. This turned out to be hard work as they wanted to know everything about us and the UK and our thoughts on Iraq and Afganistan and on Brown and Obama. One guy was amazed that we did not have coconut trees or banana trees in the UK.

We talked for ages and shared food. Time soon passed and we were now able to buy our train tickets. I thought the lady who sold the tickets had made a mistake as the train tickets only cost Rs76 for two of us, she had not the price was correct. Travel in India is so cheap. We waited on the platform which was busy. We were travelling ordinary class and we were nervous about this. We chatted to a couple of University lecturers who were on their way to Thailand to present a paper at an Education Conference.

The train was one hour late and when it arrived we got on. It was packed!! same problem as on he bus but at least it was a smoother ride. We stowed our stuff and eventually got a seat. Rae chatted to her neighbour who told her to get off at the station after Kollam. We did this and yep, it was the wrong station, we were 10KM away from valkala!

No probs though as we found a rickshaw driver to take us there. It was a bumpy drive in the dark but we did not care as we would soon be at the homestay, or so we thought. We arrived in Valkala and the driver asked some other rickshaw drivers the way to the Keratheeram Homestay. It was now 05.00ish in the morning and the temple music was just beginning and we were very, very tired. We felt sorry for the rickshaw guy as he drove round Valkala in circles. We shone torches on signs but could not see the homestay. He asked more people and they gave directions but we still drove round in circles. Then he rang the homestay and they gave directions and we still went round in circles.

Eventually a scooter was dispatched and it found us and led the way to the Keratheeram resort. Happily the owners were very pleased to see us, this was a bonus as we had not booked a room! They helped us with our packs and made sure we had everything we needed. We paid the rickshaw driver and gave him a good tip. He was so relieved to have eventually got us to our destination. The resort owners made us tea which we drank on the veranda listening to the approaching dawn.What a journey we had been traveling for a total of 13.5 hours and we had not slept since Monday night but all this paled into insignificance as we sat drinking our delicious tea listening to the waves crashing onto the nearby beach.

Since arriving in Valkala we have had a good time relaxing and swimming twice a day (early morning and late afternoon). From about 10.00 it is too hot for us to venture onto the beach. Valkala though is a small tourist resort and is nothing remotely like India. There are plentiful restaurants and souvenir shops which are expensive by Indian standards. The restaurants seem to want to cater for every nationality apart from Indian which means the food is not very good and is very, very expensive! We were looking forward to eating plenty of seafood but have only been able to afford to do this a couple of times. Indeed the seafood is a real rip off and sad to say generally badly cooked.

We feel very sorry for the fishermen who catch the fish and then sell it to the restaurateurs for a pittance who then cook it badly and flog it to Westerners for an absolute fortune. Bear in mind a typical Indian meal for two comes to about Rs100-200 maximum and last night our bill was Rs500 and the food was nothing special at all, in fact, I hate to say it, but we would have cooked it a damn site better. All fish dishes unless you clearly state otherwise come with chips and a poor excuse for a salad. We find this strange, I mean, would you really want to travel nearly half-way across the globe to a beautiful country like India and eat in an open air restaurant overlooking the Arabian sea and eat chips with your marlin, red snapper, tiger prawns, barracuda, shark or tuna steaks? The tourists we have spoken to hear all say the same thing, give us good quality and sensibly priced Keralan food please!

On Thursday morning we had our first upset stomach since being in India and I am not sure where to point the blame. Still it only lasted 24hrs.

The owners of Keratheeam are a lovely family and the accommodation is only a couple of minutes walk to the steps leading onto the beach. Their rooms are very sensibly priced and comfortable with hammocks on the veranda, so luxurious!! We found out yesterday that they would have been very happy to cook us proper Keralan dishes, so I would strongly recommend to anyone coming Valkala to stay at this guest house and eat in rather than go out for food.

Apart from these gripes we have enjoyed a week just chilling out meeting people, walking, reading, swimming and lazing on the beach albeit only early morning and late afternoon as it is now getting very, very hot and humid here. 

We leave Valkala on the 18.00 train tonight for Chennai where we fly back to the UK 04.00 Tuesday morning. We have had such a wonderful time in India and look forward to coming back again in the not too distant future. Next time we would like to go to North India, Nepal particularly to the Himalaya.

Ok, We will post pictures as and when we can.

Much love

Marc and Rae XX

A Cool Time on Marrori Beach and in the Mountains of Munnar

Last Friday Sachu gave us directions of how to get to Marrori Beach. Now if you want to spend some time at the perfect beach then this is it! As you can see it was pretty well empty. The sand was glistening white in the sun and the Arabian Sea was as warm as the bath you would take at home. Eagles gracefully flew overhead and the Fiddler crabs were doing their sand burrow maintenance thing. All we can say is this is a magical and unspoilt place, may it stay that way always.

Walking back to get the bus after our lovely time on the beach we came across these guys repairing a fishing boat in the traditional Kerala manner. They did not speak any English and so we got by with sign language and I really like the way the build their boats. Stitching just seems to me to make perfect sense, and coir is everywhere here and is really, really cheap! Boats like this one paddle up to 3KM offshore to fish. The boats are heavy in construction and so make good sea boats. Commonly one man would take this boat to sea and fish.

This is our new friend Sachu who looked after us so well in Alleppey. Thank you sachu and please stay in touch.

Moving on to Munnar.

Alleppey was great but so hot and very, very humid. We had not realised how hot and humid until we arraived in Munnar. The journey from Alleppey to Munnar was a long although straight forward one. We took the bus to Ernakulam. The journey was mainly through busy, hot and humid towns and cities. The bus was full and we just sat and went with the flow.

We picked up our bus connection easily from Ernakulam and after sometime we were driving through country side and then it began to become more hilly and then we saw our first tea plantations, wow!

The bus drivers in Kerala seem to be on a mission to break all speed records to get their passengers to their destination as fast as possible. This at times can be scary. The best policy is not to look at where you are going, ignorance can at times be bliss, believe me bliss is good.

However this zeal to overtake everything on the road and go as fast as humanly possible can lead to collissions, it really is not rocket science. Our bus was going up a very big hill and round a bend when another bus came very fast down the hill. There was a grinding of metal on metal as both buses brushed passed each other. Both vehicles came to a halt and most the men got off each bus. There was much discussion and head scratching and making of phone calls. Actually there was not much damage at all, these buses are full of dents and scratches so what is the problem with another odd bump or scratch.

So, evententually we got underway again and arrived in Munnar at 16.30 some six and a half ours after leaving Alleppey. On arriving we eventually found the homestay recommended by the Ashtumdi homestay we had resided in Alleppey. We were relieved to have a shower and find somewhere to eat and get to bed.

Temple music awoke us in the morning and we went and organised a tour to the Top Station. This was an amazing day and the mountain scenery is breathtaking. It is also so wonderful not dripping with sweat all the time and feeling hot and dusty. On the Way to Top station we stopped off at Mattupetty Dam and Echo Point. Each place was busy with mainly Indian tourists from Delhi and Chennai and other places. It was great visiting tourist spots that they also go too.

Ok, some tea facts, tea was first grown here just over 120 years ago. Tea bushes live for up to 100 years. Wild elephant roam these parts, we have not seen any and there are also tigers but not in this district. The tea plantations are vast but only cover one third of the total area of land owned by the tea growers which is now mainly owned by the workers who all have shares in the company. The first dirctor worker appointed to the Board of Directors was a woman.

Ok time for photos.

 

The trees in the distance are a type of Australian Eucolyptus. The wood from from these trees are used for firewood. The seeds for these fast growing trees was smuggled in to India over 100 years ago.

Ok, we were surprised to see Pontsettias (can't spell sorry) growing wild

These jeeps are Indian Mahindras. They are everywhere in this district and outnumber motor bikes.

We were due to leave tomorrow but found out by accident this morning that there is a bus strike tomorrow. So, to overcome this difficulty we have rented this wonderful Royal Enfield Bullet 350CC bike. After all after riding a scooter for three weeks we figured that this will be a peice of cake and there will be no buses to run us down, bonus!!! So we leave shortly.

Just in case you thought we were being serious and are now fretting over our safety then please don't fret, this is a joke. There is a bus strike tomorrow and we are therefore leaving Munnar on the 17.40 bus. We are going to become backpacking beach bums for the rest of our stay and are going to Valkala the Bob Marley centre of India.

Love 

Marc and Rae 

XXXX 

Adventures in Alleppey

This is a photo of me with our friend Lars who we met during our stay at Auroville. Lars is from Northern Germany. We had a lovely last evening with Lars at the Solar Kitchen and Cafe and we look forward to meeting-up with him again in the future. Just after this photo was taken a strange thing happened. A gheko fell from the ceiling and landed in Lars' empty plate. After a second or two it came round and scuried off..

Our travels from Auroville to Chennai and then from Chennai to Alleppey were remarkably straight forward. We treated ourselves to an air conditioned bus ride from Pondicherry to Chennai which took three and a half hours. It was lovely sitting looking at the scenery around us. The bus had a very loud air horn which was great for the cars, auto rickshaws, motorbikes, scooters, bicycles, cows and goats and humans as they knew the bus was coming giving themselves plenty of time to get out of the way. If for some reason they did not get out the way then happily the bus had very good brakes.

When we arrived in Chennai we had to get an auto rickshaw (tooc tooc) to the station. This was a great experience as the tooc toocs in chennai are much more powerful than the ones we were used to. This is important as the traffic is of the same density as London but instead of cars consists of scooters and motorbikes and TVS'. Oh, yep, and there are also cows and goats here and there too. The serentity with which people drive around amidst the chaos is amazing. Actually its more than this, it is awesome. Rae made the saliant comment that all London cabbies should come to India to learn the art of serenity whilst driving in stressfull and adverse circumstances. We still have not seen any road rage or any anger of any sort. Wonderful!

We arrived at Chennai station which was also extremely busy. We had a while to wait, well several hours actually but this was fine as it was a wonderful experience being at the station. Happily there are no KFC or McDonald's outlets just fresh cooked fast food Indian style, dosa, various dahls, currys and chappatis etc... delicious and cheap. Also there was a chap selling water from a container so you could just re-use your water bottle. The cost of the water Rs3 (less than a penny)!!!

As you can see each of the carriages has a passenger list stuck on it which states your name and your age. This is in case of a crash so that rescuers know who is in each carriage. Top idea!

The train we were on was so long! The photo of it was taken near our carriage which was over half way along its length and still you could not see the front!! The train journey was wonderful and we met some very interesting people. Our carriage was air conditioned and the train was full of all sorts of people, business people, families etc... Rae was amazed at how everyone just got on and sorted out the beds and then slept all in the same carriage. Vendors came round selling food and coffee etc... it was great. We woke in the morning to a beautiful dawn and at each stop more and more people left the train until all who left in our carriage were us and chap called Cherian who was off to visit his family in Alleppey. Cherian had worked all over the world as an IT consultant and we chatted about which countries were his favourites.

We saw these guys loading this barge and were surprised at how low the vessel sat in the water. Apparently this is normal practise here to fill the boat litterally to the brim. All fine as long as there are no waves and no wash from the houseboats or ferries. One wave and I think this boat would be gone in under a couple of minutes!

A house boat. These are tourist boats and were originally rice barges. Now they have bamboo superstructures which are airconditioned with blooming satalite dishes and we saw one with an extremly large plasma screen. Umh, whatever floats your boat I guess!

The sleek and very fast Snake boat. This is a racing thoroughbred, 130 ft long and  a crew of 120.

Our skipper and guide. Lovely chap, but not much English so we could not chat much.

The vast expanse of rice fields can be seen behind the palm tree. Coconuts drying in the sun in order to extract coconut oil.

Unloading a barge.It was great to see these boats working as they have done for centuries.

It must have been wash day yesterday beacuse every where we went women were washing clothes. Slapping of wet clothes on wash stones could be heard everywhere.

Workers off to their lunch break, we think.

We stopped for lunch at a resturant which like so many places on the backwaters are only accessable by boat. This was our lunch, my oh my it was so delicious!! The guys that run the place where we ate spoke good English and were like all people round here into boats. One of the guys sails an Enterprise dinghy and the other chap is a well known Snake boat helmsman and owns the yard where the boat below is being repaired. I will write about the Kerala boat building on my blog for boat building geeks like me when I get back to the UK.

Yep, this is an eagle and it is indigenous to this area. Today at the beach we saw lots of Eagles.

 

White Heron

Water snake which was swallowing a fish when Rae took this pic.

We are staying in the same guest house as Becca and Carys stayed when they were here. We have met their friend Sachu. Sachu is a lovely guy and he just could not beleive that Rae is Becca's mum. He was so pleased to meet us and told us about what a great time he had had when Becca and Carys were here.

Yesterday we went on a back waters canoe trip. It is true the backwaters of Kerala are stunningly beautiful and unspoilt. People live here as they have done for centuries and it was a real privialge to be able to travel these waters. The back waters are enormous so we did not even scratch the surface even after our five hour trip!  The boats are lovely too and are stitched together using coir (rope made from coconut husks). This is a very simple but extremely effective way of fastening planks together. Today we saw guys actually doing this and I was seriously impressed, It is a totally environmentally friendly way to build, makes repair work dead easy.

The thing that struck us most yesterday was the peace of the backwaters. apart from the odd boat diesel engine it was tranquil. No sounds of cars, just people chatting, children learning in their schools which we paddled by. Also it was so much cooler. In Alleppey it is very hot and humid, and so to be on the cooling water was a real treat for us.

Love

Rae and Marc

XX

A Day Out to the Sunday Market in Pondy

 

Yesterday morning we went to the Savitiri Bahavn Centre to see an exhibition entitled: Sri Aurobindo and Mother, Finding the Psychic Being. The show consisted of a collection of photos of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother with writings and poems on the subject of the Psychic being (which I think is kind of a guide for the soul which exists on another dimensional plane, forgive me if I have got this a bit wrong).

The show was thought provoking and the writings beautiful as was the exhibition space itself.

On a less serious note we went and saw a Hitchcock movie at the Auditorium last night called Suspicion. It starred Cary Grant and was made in about 1940. Seemed mad being in India watching an old black and white movie set in Sussex!

Today was market day in Pondy. We drove our little scooter down to the main Chennai - Pondicherry Road and parked it near the beach. We then caught the bus into Pondy which is about 6KM away. The cost each was Rs3/ which is less than 2p! Anway we only waited about five minutes for a bus, buses are very frequent here in India. The journey in was unventful and was fun, loud music palying and lots of hooting and fast driving. The journey home was very cosy, you could not have squeezed another person on the bus! People were hanging from the doors! But everyone was smiling and chatting. I think we eraned respect from the locals using the bus and enjoying the crush, the loud music, fast driving an dvery, very friendly people who told us when we had reached our stop.

The photos I think are pretty self- explanatory, though check out the guy with the big fish!! Rae and I enjoyed fresh coconut milk to cool us down in the heat. The market bustled and you could buy so much stuff!

The temple was a highlight. Seeing the sacred elephant blessing Hindu's and going inside the temple was a real privalege. Ganesh images are evrywhere in Southern India as the cermaics indicate.

Must go now as the Internet shop is clsoing for the night.

Much love

Marc and Rae
XX