Kerala: my playground

Backwaters in Allepey

So about 2 weeks ago, I officially left my job and my apartment in Udaipur to travel for 2 months before heading back to the US. Leaving Udaipur was a little sad, but I was definitely ready to go and have some more adventures and Kerala was the perfect place to start. Kerala is amazing. For those of you who don’t know, Kerala is a state in South India on the West coast, along the Arabian Sea. So I took an overnight bus to Delhi and then flew to Cochin, a city in Kerala. On the flight, my horoscope in the airline magazine read: Travel undertaken in February will be good and will show positive trends in your life. WHAT A GOOD OMEN!

Some of the things I noticed/liked about Kerala:

• The weather was warm and sunny, but being by the sea, it was relatively easy to cool down, especially when I was at the beach in Varkala (the water was perfect for swimming) and during my tour of the backwaters in Allepey (small canals which are essentially like roads that you travel by canoe).

Chinese fishing nets in Fort Kochi

• Kerala is about 20% Christian which is much higher than most of India. Instead of (or in addition to) brightly colored Ganesh’s on dashboards, there were Jesus’s, popular names included John, Nazareth, etc. It was Christianity, but the asthetic and ritual was very reminiscent of Hinduism (brightly colored and patterned).

• Sign at a Hindu temple: Men are requested to remove their shirts before entering the shrine. No shirt, no shoes, yes service.

• Food! Kerala had amazing seafood! Some of the freshest fish I’ve ever had. And the staple ingredients are coconut and banana. We even had omelet with coconut which was delicious.

• Elephants! I achieved my goal of seeing elephants in the wild. It was incredible.

Originally, I was really nervous about traveling alone. I thought I would get lonely and bored, but it turned out to be great. It was very freeing to really not have to worry about anyone else and to be able to make decisions just based on what I wanted to do.

On my second to last day in Kerala, I had decided to go back to the beach after going to Allepey because I had heard some bad reviews of Kumily (which was supposed to be my next destination). But once I got back to the beach (3 hour bus ride), I decided that I actually did not want to stay at the beach because it was too easy and I wanted to take the opportunity to see something else. So at around 3 on the second to last day of my trip, I got an auto to the bus station and asked for the next bus to Kottayam . There were no buses so I went to the train station, asked the attendant what time was the next train to Kottayam, he said, now. What luck. So I boarded the 3 hour train to Kottayam. Then in Kottayam I headed to the bus station and asked for the next bus to Kumily, he said it left in 10 minutes. Just my luck again. 4 hours later, at around 10:30 I got into Kumily. As we pull in, a fellow on my bus asks where I am going and tells me he is a guide, shows me his tourism department badge, blah blah blah and says he knows of a guest house for 200 rupees. So he takes me to the guesthouse which is a really nice place. Then the next day he takes me for a tour. I do 2 boat rides through the lake at Periyar national park which is a beautiful ride and we spotted some wildlife, wild boars, bison, dear and my beloved elephants. The scenery was beautiful forest and the lake has lots of dead trees sticking out which add to the natural and untouched feel of the park. We (me and my Scottish friend named David who is staying at the same guesthouse and is really cool) also did a tour of a spice garden which I had no expectations for, but turned out to be amazing. We saw tons of beautiful flowers and lots of spices which I never knew what the plants actually looked like. Black pepper, cardamom, vanilla, cinnamon, curry leaf, 3 types of coffee, betel , etc. The garden was beautiful and the smells were amazing. It turned out to be such an amazing detour (even though it added at least 14 hours of travel to my journey) and I’m not sure I would have done it if I hadn’t been alone. My lesson, traveling alone can be really fun and liberating, it’s great to be totally in control of your own itinerary and if something goes wrong, you’re not letting anyone else down which is freeing. I also met plenty of really cool people to chat with and get meals with, and there just isn’t much time to get lonely.

Periyar Lake in Kumily

Now I am in Delhi, rejuvenating for my trip up to Himachal Pradesh, it’s going to be the polar opposite of the sunny beaches of Kerala, but a wedding awaits!