Asian Sky: Trip to Kerala (God's own Country)

We flew to Cuchin (Kochi) on Thursday the 15th of Feb for a long overdue long weekend break. The small state of Kerala, which represents just 1% of the land mass,is considered to be one of India's most beautiful state. It is a very rural state with most of the population living in villages but is culturally and scenically diverse.Kerala occupies a long (550km), narrow strip of land in the far south of India. Its coastline is on the Arabian Sea ( part of the Indian Ocean) and its eastern border with the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu is the top of the majestic Western Ghat mountains. The landscape varies from long golden beaches to cool hill stations and dense green jungle to bustling cities. Its unique feature is the 1,900km of palm fringed backwaters.

Thursday and Friday night we stayed at Rock Springs http://www.rockspringscochin.com/ which is a lovely resort on the backwaters on Vypeen Island. A small resort where the people are very friendly and the food delicious. The resort is one of the only mid range resorts on the Vypeen Island with a swimming pool. It is approximately 15 km from Cherai Beach.

We enjoyed a boat cruise on the backwaters and admired the beautiful scenery of "Incredible India".

We hired an auto (tuk-tuk) for the afternoon to take us to Cherai beach. I don't know if I'll ever get use to the auto rides. Marc and I stopped counting after the 10th or so NDE's (Near death experience) .

On Saturday we checked into The Cherai Beach Resort http://www.cheraibeachresorts.com/index.htm which was a great location as it was on the backwaters with the beach on the doorstep. I went for my first ayurvedic massage (a very oily affair), we enjoyed the terrific setting just chilling in a hammock under the palm trees, calm backwaters all around.

Lazy afternoons, relaxing on the beach

Sunset - Cherai Beach

Like most people have dogs, the property next to Cherai Beach Resort had an elephant in the backyard.

It was another hair raising auto ride to Vypeed and from there another 5 min ferry ride to Fort Cuchin www.fortcochin.com/ we took a Rs.50 auto tour on the tourist trail around Fort Cuchin to the ayurvedic spice store, ginger factory, Jew Town, Chinese fishing nets etc.

There was an old man with blood shot eyes (must be from all the rum) that did a numerology reading for Marc. Well, we think that's what it was as we couldn't quite make out what he was saying...we caught the odd word "you lucky man, high powered man, 50/50 heart line, too much power job...." it was a laugh never the less!

We strolled around the market

More shops in Jew Town that sell antiques, handy craft etc.

Kochi was an obscure fishing village that became the first European township in India. The town was shaped by the Portuguese, the Dutch and later the British. The result of these cultural influences are seen in the many examples of Indo European architecture that still exist here.