Month: December 2011

Day 10 started very early with our alarm going off at 4.15. We were in reception by 4.30 and all departed on time at 4.45. We were given a packed breakfast by the hotel.

The station was dark but quite busy. The train departed at 5.50 and there was a bit of platform hopping as the departure platform changed. Quite like the UK really but that is where the similarities ended.

I had expected a train similar to that of the train in Thailand last year from Bangkok to Chang Mei or something similar to what I remember from travelling from Delhi to Agra some 40 years ago or the train we took with Explore from Jaipur across Rajestan 20 years ago. It was worse than all of them. We were on a 2nd class a/c carriage and split into 2 groups,breaking the party and a families into two in a carriage which 3 + 2 seats either side of the gangway. As Engine warned the a/c got quite fierce and it got cold. Thank goodness for jumpers. It train was also showing signs of age but functioned just fine. It was a pity it was arranged as it was as there was little opportunity to move about, chat and loom out the window. There was no much to see out the train as it was dark and as we soon found out the windows were filthy and tinted yellow…. Everything looked like it was from an early colour film. If there had been a 1st class that might have been more fun… as it was it was fine and we experienced Indian intercity travel… Tea coffee curry and doughnuts on sale throughout the journey.

We were met at the station and travelled via 2 minibuses to our hotel in Kovalam – the Sagara Beach Resort. This inset of the hillside above Lighthouse beach at the lighthouse end of the beach and had good sized a/c rooms. Really quite nice, and an easy walk to the beach and also with 2 swimming pools. We had to hang around fora hour waiting until 12 before we could check in. It would have been better to have been told and we could have explored straight away as it waste ended up the in restaurant who were ill prepared for a party of 17 just as they were clearing up from breakfast. We did all get a little gift from the hotel a small cloth bag with a bottle of sandalwood oil. Nice touch.

We soon got to the beach and spent the rest of the afternoon there. The sea was great fun with big waves rolling in and breaking with a great crash. We hired two body boards and you could surf the whole way in or get tossed head over heels! We had a bit of fun bargaining for deck chairs and umbrellas and ended up with 8 chairs and 4 umbrellas for the group. It turns out the chap hiring the chairs knows Engine. Does everyone know him? Anyway he looked after us well and I paid him the full price in the end rather than the bargained price – the difference was less than £1!

Kovalam is quite different from Varkala and the sea front is crowded with 100s of shops and restaurants, people selling bits and bobs along the pavement in front of the shops, fruit sellers touting the fruit cut up to people on the beach and tan coloured stray dogs all looking for bits and also as if they are from the same extended family. Lighthouse beach leads around the headland to another beach which was visited by many more Indian families than Lighthouse beach many of them going not the sea fully clothed.

We did some shopping before going back to the hotel and both Charlotte and Tim ended up with silver bracelets, I got a T shirt, we got some Kashmeri placemats and C also got some other cheaper bracelets.

As we had the beer and wine we bought in Cochin cooling in Nick and Libby’s fridge the adults all gathered in their room at 6.30 for pre dinner drinks before we all met for dinner at 7 and went to a restaurant called See Bee. It turns out this must be the local Explore hang out in Kovalam as there were Explore stickers in the restaurant. We had a pretty good meal. Quite a few had tiger prawns which were tasty in a curry sauce (the dish had a more exotic name but I don’t recall what) but as with so much of the food here needed some picking over to get he good bits. The chicken and mutton and beef dishes have been similar with bones to get through and the risk of getting nothing but bone. Anyway not a bad dinner.

We all retired to bed… A very hard bed! … Ready for another day of doing nothing as we all had rejected the possibility of a trip to the tip of India or a cookery course.

We set of at 9.30 after breakfast as planned for the day in Kochi.

Eugine has planned a walk around the old part of Fort Cochin and then Jew Town.

About 30 mins later we arrive and our planned 20 mins becomes more like 35 but the old town is nice. We stroll down some old streets, see the beach, walk past Eugine’s old school, pass the old Dutch Cemetery and go into St Francis’s Church which is the oldest Christian Church in India. The Queen visited a few years ago. It is fascinating with a tin roof, old fashioned fans – Punkas – which would have been pulled by punka wallas in years gone by. We then visit the Chinese fishing nets on the harbour …. the most photographed thing in Kochi …. We get a chance to get on the nets and the kids have a go at pulling up the net and catching fish …. this has become a tourist attraction rather than a commercial fishing operation…. How sad.

The walk seems a bit rushed to me and I would have liked more time to explore the streets. Eugine then leads us to Brights Residency! We visit the a/c emporium on the ground floor. B is annoyed as it is very commercial and Nick and I guess Eugine has promised to take us there as we cancelled the 1000 rupee a head dinner the night before and the hotel wants to get something back. But perhaps we are wrong.

We asked to get a chance to explore a bit but apparently the synagogue we are to visit shuts at 1 pm and it is now 12 so unless we get moving we will not see it. 15-20 mins later we reach Jew town which is very busy. We are also visiting the local museum in an old Dutch palace and as neither allow camera and the synagogue does not allow bags everything is left on the bus including money. It seems odd walking around with none of the tourist bits!

Merry Xmas. Woken before 7 with the staff clearing up on the rooftop after the party the night before!

The kids appear at 7.30 right on time and we had a very nice family time doing Xmas stocking! B and I both thought the kids got more than they had expected – good!

Breakfast at 7.45 and ready for the 6 hour journey to Kochi. It is quite chilly and we have the air conditioning off on the start of the journey.

We retrace our steps for some of the way down and stop at a ‘hotel’ Mariya at Pullapara for coffee and tea. This stop has a veranda with wonderful views over the hills.

We quickly descend back to rubber tree zones and into the town of Mundakayam which is quite quiet! Xmas is having its effect on the number of people about and the traffic!

We travel on through Chottupura, Vandipeyiar, Kanjirapally, and then pass the Queens Restaurant where we had our tea/coffee stop on the way up at Ponkunnam. Then through Paika, Pala, and stop at the Hotel Elegance at Kidangoor for the loos and therefore have to have more coffee and tea.

When chatting over drinks it we realise that Eugine has been on the phone a lot and wonder what is going on….. It soon becomes apparent as we travel on.

We continue the journey through Ettumanoor, Udatamperoor and Tripunithora eventually reaching the outskirts of Kochi sometime after 2pm.

What we find out is the hotel we were meant to stay at in the middle of Kochi, Brights Residency, has double booked! There are 2 Explore holidays booked in and they did not realise and have only made bookings for one…. and the other group is already in! Eugine has been phoning to find a replacement!

We turn up at the replacement hotel – the Malabar Court. It looks grotty but the outside in India can be deceptive so we go in and are greeted with small glasses of a very peculiar red, semi alcoholic drink, which is not very nice and wait for the rooms to be sorted.

Eugine then comes it Libby and them me saying that they do not have air conditioned rooms for all of us… 2 of us will need to have rooms with no a/c. Bridget then says we need to see the rooms before deciding…what a good idea that turned out to be. So Nick, Libby, Bridget, Karen, Eugine and so of the staff go up in the lift to see the rooms.

As we turn up there is an Indian family hurriedly leaving one of the two rooms…. I feel a bit embarrassed.. and the rooms are horrid…. Xmas day is turning a bit sour. After a quich chat between ourselves we decide that we do not want to stay at the hotel and turn to Eugine for suggestions. He is now in a bit of a spot and his day is turning into a nightmare too…. The planned trip to see his family, the Indian dancing and the Christmas Party planned at Brights Residency are all fading away as the day moves on.

Nick has a quiet chat with Eugine and asks how the hotel was found…… it transpires that Brights Residency found the hotel as an alternative. To give Eugine he was straight on the phone when he realised that this was not a hotel we would stay at!

We all troop downstairs and decide to taken the kids for chicken and chips and the fast food place next the the hotel while things are sorted as it is now 3.30 ish and no one has eaten properly. Just after ordering we find out that we have been upgraded to a 5 star hotel which has space but is 30 mins drive from Fort Cochin where we were meant to be staying. We are not going to be able to explore Cochin today. As we are planning to attend the party at Brights and the hotel does no serve alcohol the men go off with Eugine to the nearest Kerela State alcoho outlet and buy beer and a cople of bottles of Indian wine (from an estate called Grovers which has resulted in an acceptable – just – Sauvigon Blanc and this time Viognier).

The upgrade is the Bolgatty Palace Hotel on Bolgatty Island an ex Dutch colonial building from 1744 and the site of the British Administration until 1947. It is now run by KTDC the Kerela Tourism Development Corporation. It has a pool.

Halfandouralter sometime between 4 and 5 we arrive. The hotel is set its own spacious grounds, has a 9 hole golf course and is surrounded by water. A lovely spot. The rooms are nice and we are all soon settled in and decide not to leave for the Xmas party but stay put and enjoy the pool and the hotel and just recover!

We sent Eugine off to see his family and arrange to meet the following morning at 9.30. The rest of us enjoy the pool and a buffet dinner in the hotel…. No celebrations here and also no a la carte menu …. it is an Indian buffet but it is fine. Nick and Libby go for a massage…. Only Nick gets one for some reason to do with the lady masseur not being available.

The hotel is preparing for a big party the next day in the conference suites next to the pool area but more of that in tomorrow’s story.

Merry Christmas.

A 7.30 breakfast with a 8.30 departure. The journey to the Peryiar national park and the Peryiar Tiger Sanctuary is approx a 4 hour journey on the coach.

Sad to leave Vanilla County which has been a very pleasant few days.

The coach quite quickly travels up higher than the line of rubber trees. At somewhere between 400 and 500 m from what we learnt about rubber yesterday.

We travel through the villages and towns of Velliklum, Vagamon, Kolakalamenu, Kuttikkanum to Peermede for our first stop for coffee and tea. We soon enter tea growing country after leaving the rubber. The green regimented neatly trimmed bushes of tea carpet the hillside all the way to the side of the road. We stopped the coach fro a few moments to look at the tea being harvested by the workers overseen by the supervisor under his umbrella.

Our coffee/tea stop in Peermade is at a very odd hotel called the Himarani International situated on a near vertical hillside overlooking the river. We had to walk down two flights of stairs to get to the dining room which was painted a strange black on the hillside side of the room but had a commanding view of the river below. We then set of again and after only about 10-15 mins stopped again at the Mount St. Francis, Pattumala Church And Pilgrim Centre otherwise known as the Matha Pilgrim Shrine.

This catholic church is set on top of the hill with fantastic views across the surrounding tea planted hills. The church is decorated with as lovely star with the words “HAPPYX, MAS”. A good stop and the church peaceful with a few locals praying and the local priest sitting reading on one side. Interesting the church has no pews as in the UK and from what could be seen of those praying the locals stand or kneel on the floor but do not sit.

We travel on for approx another hour through Pambanar, Vandiperiyar (a busseling town which apparently is mostly populated with people from the neighbouring Tamil Nadu who work in the tea plantations) to Kumuli and reach our hotel the Grand Thekkady at about 12.30. We were greeted by a very sinister Father Christmas who was dancing outside the hotel to welcome guests and played art of the festivities for the remainder of the day. As we walked in we got a bindi on the forehead, a chocolate sweet and a glass of local sherry in a shot glass!

We all had a rather chaotic lunch with 4 families spread across 3 tables before getting ready for a 2.15 start – a quick walk to the Tiger Sanctuary. The hotel although only 2 years old was a it grubby – we were spoilt over the past few days.

The Tiger Sanctuary walk was termed a “soft trek” and before we set off for our to hour walk we had to put on leech socks which were thick cotton knee length loose socks which went over both feet and lower leg and tie below the knee. We all looked very silly!

The walk was nice but disappointing from a wildlife perspective. We saw some big deer and a couple of monkeys at the start but over the next 100 mins or so saw nothing – the elephants (which we saw signs of had disappeared – there are over 1000 so we had a good chance of seeing these normally) and the potential of tiger (only 30 left) never materialised.

The rest of the day (5.30 on). Shopping and the Christmas Eve celebration on the rooftop restaurant of the hotel.

The shopping was a success with a dhothi for the boys, new silk tops / trousers of the girls and some secret Santa gifts for boxing day all sorted. I am not sure we did a good job bargaining but we got what we wanted. Charlotte was tempted by a silver ankle bracelet at 2500 (then 2000) and might have gone lower (approx £30) but decided she would never wear it!

Dinner was at 8 and Eugine (our guide) gave Nick, Tim and I a quick lesson on tieing a dhothi and we were ready! They had laid on quite a feast (a 500 rupees a head) with 4 different rices, about 6 meat curries, 6 vegetarian, parathas, appams, BBQ fish, sweets (gulab jamon, halwa (sp?), cheesecake, ice cream. We were entertained by some excellent Indian dancing from a young couple.

It was then our turn to dance and, to Boney M and other cliche Xmas songs, the Father Christmas from earlier at the door, started to encourage adults and children to gyrate in from of the other diners. It was all good fun and quite silly.

Things started to peter out at about 10 and the kids disappeared to Mills and Fiz’s room and the adults to Nick and Libby’s. We sat around chatting and said goodnight about 11.30.

After quickly getting stockings ready and telling Charlotte and Tim to be at our door at 7.30 we went to bed.

Left Coir Village @ 9 and walked to bus through villages. 4 hour drive ahead.

Lost 5 of the group on walk as they walked the wrong way having hung back taking photos! Found them pretty easily however on the route the rickshaws took the day before.

Drove through Mannar, Thiruvalla, Changanacherry, Thengana, Vazoor, Ponkunnam.

Lots of busy Indian traffic but otherwise a bit dull.

We stopped for coffee and drinks at the Queens Restaurant, Cheppumpara, Ponkunnam. Instant coffee but actually quite good.

More driving through Kanjirapally, Thidanad and then Teekoy just hear our final destination the Homestay – Vanilla County. See www.vanillacounty.in.

The houses is amazing – made of teak and mahogany with think walls and verandas. Our room has teak ceiling, mahogany floor, rosewood furniture and a extra bed hanging from the ceiling. All the rooms in the house are similar. Charlotte, Millie and Fiz all sharing with Tim in his own room but with all 4 sharing a bathroom.

The house is owned by Baby Mathews – the youngest of 6 – 5 boys and 1 girl. By tradition the youngest inherits the house to look after the parents with. the estate being split between the sons. So Baby is the youngest (49) and has 160 acres of what was a 1000 acre estate bought by his grandfather in about 1947 from the local royal family.

After an excellent lunch we set off for a short 45 min walk down for a swin in the local rock pool below the house. It was lovely and cool! We stopped for a glass of locally brewed chai on the walk back. I walked back with Nick a good 30 min walk but nearly everyone else got the jeep driven by

Dinner at a berry civilised 8.00 pm was excellent – chicken, dhal, pharatas, rice, veg curry etc all washed down with either local Kingfisher beer or Gold Label. Both good.

Bed after a game of scrabble played on the iPad.