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Day 9 Sun 4th Nov - Cochin & Thekkady
The Eighth Bastion is very different to the other hotels we have stayed in, much smaller and in the the old part of Fort Cochin. Our rooms windows are surrounded by palm trees and tropical plants, birds are serenading us as we shower ready for our day ahead. I am a bit shaky but this will be due to lack of food. At breakfast I just have some poached eggs and try the tasty local bread only made in Cochin, a sugar plum loaf which as the Dutch origins. A cross between a regular loaf of bread and the plum cake but unique to Fort Kochi.
As arranged last night our new guide for the next 3 days awaits us in the lobby at 930. Sodram our driver is also there. He asks how I am feeling and says of the problem last night with me vomiting. I assure him I am fine but Russ tells him I will need to sit in the front. Russ has found our travel sick tablets I thankfully packed and we both take one. We are now on the south west coast.
We drive a short way and then go for a walk through Fort Kochi being shown Catholic Churches and the ways of life and religion explained to us as we walk. Here a different language is spoken not many Hindu’s more catholic. Fort Kochi was founded by the Portuguese and then the Dutch before the English. It is Kerala’s most cosmopolitan city and main trading centre for spices and seafood. It is built around a saltwater lagoon of the Arabian Sea. Lots of narrow islands and peninsulas. Whilst the mainland has glitzy shopping malls, old Fort Kochi has an old world charm with their blend of Dutch, Portuguese and English bungalows, quaint narrow streets.
The scenic location of Kochi’s natural harbour, surrounded by palm groves, green fields, inland lakes and backwaters has enchanted visitors from across the globe for centuries.
At the sea front we see the wonderful old Chinese Nets and for 100 Rupees are given a demonstration of how they work. They were first erected between 1350 and 1450. These particular ones are no longer used for fishing as the waterways here have been overtaken by floating hyacinths which have clogged up many of the fishing areas.
The humidity is very high, we are dripping wet by the time we get back to the car. We continue our journey to the mountains, climbing to around 3000ft from sea level at Fort Cochi. The roads pass through 3 levels of crops, first being the rubber plantations, we stop and Bidhu gives us a demonstration and why all the trees have plastic attached to them. This is to protect from the rain where the bark is cut to obtain the rubber. We pick some off a tree and it is like an elastic band, quite strange.
The next level are the tea plantations, the hills smothered with the finely groomed bushes. They are in fact trees but are harvested, the new leaves, every 45 days, hand picked.
After taking a further tablet we feel better and enjoy the journey. We stop a couple of times for coffee and lunch, Russ enjoying the local dish with Sodram and Bidhu, I stick to a bit of bread not wanting anything to rich to rest on my stomach for the rest of the journey. This is in Idukki Peerumade at 13:30, so high up now with clear views of the mountains around us passing a waterfall on the roadside with beautiful African red trumpet trees.
Some of the roads are badly damaged by the recent floods, the largest amount of rainfall during the monsoon Kerala has seen in a 100 years. Work is underway repairing them as we drive through. By 4pm we have arrived at Spice Village in the Thekkady at the Peryiar National Park. A very warm welcome is given to us with a drink and this time a shell garland. Bidhu checks in for us and we bid farewell till tomorrow morning. We are shown to our bungalow which is just lovely. Such a different feel to that we have experienced so far. It is an Ecovillage and received many awards. They do not use plastic and for example toiletries and in lovely little clay pots, refillable......
The water is filtered on site and provided in glass sealed bottles.
We spot coffee plants in the gardens and every tree is identified on labels. We take a walk and visit the Spa and book a couple of deep tissue massages for the next day. I stay for a facial massage which I thoroughly enjoyed.
Here are at one with nature. The evening birdsong is like listening to Alexa’s Relaxing Skills - Rainforest! As we sit on our terrace and watch tiny squirrels playing we feel are inside of the Rainforest and actually are!
18:45 we go along to the cooking demonstration and it is of my favourite dessert, this time not looking like mushy peas! As I thought it is made of rice flakes.
The food Bidhui told us was simple but there was as much choice here as the other grand hotels we have stayed in. I really enjoy the vegetarian choices which are not too spicy. The staff see to our every need and fetch food for us and suggest dishes. As we sit and enjoy our evening meal a dance demonstration is going on just below us, the birds evening song around us, no horns, just us, nature and the jingle of bells on the dancers feet.
Virtually all the staff have introduced themselves and made a point of welcoming us to Spice Village.
We can hardly believe that is was only a week ago that we flew out of Heathrow, it feels in a great way that we have been in India for months.
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