Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Dear Kerala
What a way to finish off India! You are one beautiful state. With your spindly network of rivers, lakes and canals that make up your backwaters, your rice paddies, coconut groves, lush tea plantations, colonial Cochin and then one of the most romantic valentines days I've ever had, Kerala, you are right up there as one of my most favourite places.
Driving up into the hill country surrounded by your tea plantations and magnificent views over the Western Ghats was breathtaking. It was my first time being surrounded by the little uniform tea trees you see, so was naturally awestruck. It is such lovely sight seeing all these little trees all exactly the same height covering the rolling hills. It makes them look all soft and plush like you just want to leap over the edge and dive onto them. But that would hurt, a lot. Our guest house had superb sunset views over the hills as well and breakfast on the terrace in the morning looking out over the hills was just lovely. Even though it was omelettes, again!
Fort Cochin with its 500 years of crumbling colonial history was great and the ideal place to base ourselves for side trips. It always felt like we were coming home after an outing and although it's really small and ridiculously humid, it has a lot to offer. Well maybe not the actual sights like the synagogue, churches or Dutch cemetery, which were nothing special, but wandering along the promenade overlooking the Chinese fishing nets, sitting on the rocks watching the sunset and then choosing our fish and seafood to be cooked in one of the nearby al fresco restaurants, is definitely up there on my 'favourite ways to spend the evening' list. These giant nets which are still operated in the same way since they were brought here 400years ago, are attached to long wooden beams and lowered into the water by four strong men using a rope and rock pulley system. I know you have be strong because I jumped in and gave them a hand one day. They're flippen heavy! You gotta put your back into it!
As mentioned already, valentines this year is definitely going to be a hard one to beat. We splashed out on an overnight stay on a rice barge in your backwaters. Lonely Planet states that 'it's probably the most expensive thing you'll do in India, but its worth every darned rupee' and damn were they right! We drifted through quiet canals lined with coconut palms whilst lounging on cushions and sipped on Kingfishers, while watching kingfishers fishing, waiting for our personal chef to whip up some delicious authentic keralan dishes and then sleeping on the water under a galaxy of stars! Pure bliss!
Yes Kerala, you were definitely worth the two overnight buses and the miserable 12 hour stop in between in Bangalore to get here! I'll definitely be bragging about you to my friends and urging them to visit you one day.
Much love and fond memories
Melly x
- comments