53) ROAD TRIP TO KERALA

Our intrepid traveler friend, Anu, planned an exotic two weeks, road trip from Bangalore through God’s own country, Kerala, and back via Madurai and Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu. We were 5 of us in the car including our 91 years old Amma. To put the record straight Amma complained the least and was game for anything.

BENGALURU

We landed in Bengaluru on Ajit’s birthday. Seeing them after more than a year was, as expected, a moment for reality check with comments like ‘’you’ve put on weight’’, ‘’you are growing old’’ etc being freely exchanged.

Bangalore is called the Garden City of India and rightly so if you see the airport and the road leading to the airport. Inside the airport itself you are greeted with the sight of flowers in full bloom abundantly stacked near the conveyer belt where people stand for the longest time.  Landscaped gardens on either side of the road put you in a calm and good mood perhaps better disposed to tolerate the traffic snarls as you enter the city.

After a day’s chit-chat and catching up, we started with a tour of the AOL Ashram on Kanakpura Road (on my special request , of course). The Art of Living International Centre, built in 1986, is a home away from home for all Aolites across the world. Spread over some 65 acres it is impossible to see it on foot, so we booked a tour at the enquiry counter inside the Ashram and were taken around on a guided bus tour. Bumped into a couple of friends from Pune who had come for the Shivratri celebrations and had breakfast at the Café Vishala as there was time before our tour started. It was fun seeing it like a tourist but nowhere close to how you feel when you participate in a residential course.

On the steps of VISHALAKSHI MANTAP

The beautiful Vishalakshi Mantap

The Ashram cows going for their mid-morning "jog"😊 Each one responds to her individual name and listens to soothing music every morning.

 An effort is being made here to revive the indigenous species of cows which were slowly getting extinct because of the introduction of hybrid varieties like Jersey and Frisian, which are like milk machines. However the ill effects of the milk of these cows, called A I milk, is now coming to light. The Ashram has been able to revive some 13 indigenous species.

SRI SRI COLLEGE OF AYURVEDIC RESEARCH HOSPITAL. Free treatment is available to all here

VIEW FROM THE HOSPITAL

The next day we decided to see Cubbon Park but it was more to explore Bangalore’s Metro services. We planned to see the Bangalore Palace in the evening but lost steam as the day was getting pretty warm. We got invited by an old colleague and batchmate for dinner and had a wonderful time chatting till late at night. 

One cant fix everything!  In CUBBON PARK

The Vidhan Saudha

Anu had a lot of things planned but we preferred to just roam around MG road one day where we hunted for Tarot books for Anu and a camera for Ajit.

So after a week of generally catching up and relaxing and eating Amma’s food we started on our long awaited trip to Kerala. We had a small setback when we got a call from a forest official from Silent Valley saying due to threat of forest fires the sanctuary was closed. We decided to visit Kottayam instead – Ajit’s hometown.

WYANAD (the Land of Paddy Fields)

As we crossed Karnataka and entered Kerala two things happened, the roads narrowed (and I couldn’t drive anymore) and everything started turning a dark hue of green. In this state the pedestrian, who incidentally seems to be in no hurry, has the right of way, so we let Ajit  do all the driving while we stoically put up with his curses. The unlittered streets were a delight and also how we left one town and entered another with no barren areas in between, so all pee-breaks were at restaurants or petrol pumps. I found it remarkable that we saw nary a beggar in the whole of Kerala. Ajit had an interesting anecdote from his childhood. A professional beggar would come every month on a specific date to collect money from his grandmother. She had the date diarized and would leave money for him with instructions to family members even if she wasn’t there.

We crossed some forests and were lucky enough to see an elephant and some spotted deer.

Suddenly Amma got up from her slumber and looking out the car window stated “we are in Kerala” and then she said there’s a saying that by the time God got down to creating Kerala he had only green color left on his palette. 

Other colors of Kerala

We stopped at a place called Sulthan Bathery for lunch and discovered the best eating place in town.

Ajit having 'Bamboo Biryani' ei. biryani cooked in a bamboo

Mandatory for all restaurants in Kerala to serve boiled water. The organic coloring, which is released only when boiled, is proof thereof (Amma's tit-bit).

Our first destination was Vythri in Wyanad district which at an altitude of 700m is quite cool and has a salubrious temperature. We stayed at a resort called "The Village". It was a beautiful place and we discovered to our delight, - a birder’s paradise.

One of the bridges over a small natural stream which attracted lots of birds

A FISH FOOT SPA

Our rooms were towards the end behind the tall trees as a result we could do most of our bird watching from our windows.

A rope bridge which was quite exciting to cross for people with acrophobia!😉

There were 2 swimming pools. One with freezing cold water and the above heated by the sun. We had fun in both😅.

Ajit tried the ZIP LINE👇

Amma and Rajeev spending quiet time

Morning dew

This one was domesticated

Morning sun rays shining like stars on the dew

This was a common sight across Kerala

Spot me if you can!!
Anu spotted this lizard and as she watched it stuck out a yellow tongue at her 😛 ok at a lizard next to it.👇

The resort was so nice that we were loathe to go out and explore other places. Anyway, there were 2 natural caves called EDAKKAL a 1000 meters high on Ambakuttymala, with rock etchings, dating back 8000 years, called petroglyphs, which everybody was interested in. These etchings are believed to have been made by the Neolithic man. (For a detailed post on the Edakkal caves, please visit the following Link:Edakkal Caves - Rock Art Petroglyphs by Neolithic/Mesolithic Man)

  Then we also drove on to the BANASURA SAGAR DAM, which is the largest earthen dam in India on the Karamanathodu tributary of the Kabini River.

Amma though very enthusiastic had to be left sitting at this shop as she couldn't have climbed the steep incline and then about 200 steps to the cave.

The Petroglyphs

The lengthening shadows at the Banasura Earthen Dam

The Earthen Dam

The Banasura Sagar

Sunset on the lake

KOTTAYAM

The four nights in Vythri passed ever so fast. Before we knew it we were on our way to Kottayam. Ajit discovered a homestay near his parental house, called River View, on the net and booked it out of curiosity. It turned out to be next door to his cousin’s place who insisted we stay with her. So after spending a day at this very comfortable homestay we shifted into Ramini chechi’s sprawling house filled with antique curios. Ajit's cousin Renosh took us to the Kottayam Sailing Club for a lovely outing to see the sunset and have dinner. After visiting Ajit’s relatives I found that old residents of Kerala have retained the original look and feel of their beautiful ancestral Kerala style houses even while having refurbished them with modern day comforts. It was wonderful experiencing firsthand the warmth and hospitality of perhaps one of the brightest and most enterprising people in India. Anu and I would often compare them to the other fish eating, coastal people with Marxist leanings, the Bengalis.  What the Bengalis cannot match is the longevity of the Malayali’s; perhaps the Bong obsession with good food is to be blamed for that.

River View

River Meenachil flowing alongside the house. Ajit couldnt stop talking about his childhood in this house, frolicking in the river .

Raju the fisherman come to collect his catch

The Granary from Ajit's grandfather's times. The house was built around it because once built the granary, which denotes the wealth of the family, can never be shifted.

The intricate antique lock on the granary door.

Enjoying the morning sun, while the river flows gently in front (not in pic)

Garden Skink

The three striped Indian Palm Squirrel found south of the Vindhyas. In the north one sees the five striped ones.

Orchids grow everywhere in Kerala👇 

Cashew flower and fruit👇

Rubber sap being tapped

Nutmeg. The red covering is Javitri used in garam masala

Fruit of the nutmeg. Its sour like raw mango and used for making pickles (Amma's tit bit😊)

Kamala Kochamma braving the steps 

ASHTAMUDI LAKE

When we thought things could not get any better we landed in Ashtmudi, situated on a lake. The scene was breathtakingly beautiful. Fishing boats on the lake sillouetted against the setting sun with Brahminy kites, their feathers glistening red, gliding over the yellow coconut laden trees of the beautiful resort greeted us. One of our cottages was on a tethered boat alongside the lake.

The floating cottages

Indian Grey Mongoose babies playing on the lawns

Brahminy kites nesting

Chinese Fishing nets on the lake

Every sunrise on the lake looked different - taken through the wire mesh on the deck of the boat👇

The Dining Boat👇

Amma taking a siesta

THIRUANANTHAPURAM (The city of Lord Ananta)

After soaking in the place for a day we decided to make a day trip to Trivandrum to visit the PADMANABHA TEMPLE and also visit Ajit’s amazing cousin Sonny Chayan, who is a year older than Amma. In his heydays he would pedal up the ghats from Mumbai to Pune on the weekends 😲(yeah, our faces looked like that when we learnt).

The visit to the PADMANABHA TEMPLE left me feeling wanting. What with trying to manage the dress code and the parking of the vehicle and standing in the darshan queue I felt I hardly got to see and explore the magnificent temple. The temple was in the news lately when some of its vaults were opened and immense wealth discovered making Padmanabhaswamy the richest temple, in fact the richest religious institution in the world. A seventh secret vault which nobody has had the courage to open, holds, God alone knows (literally) what treasures.

The Dress Code

Padmanabhaswamy South Gate. 
Cameras, mobiles permitted only beyond a furlong of the temple

After visiting Ajit’s amazing cousins and aunts, who he has promised to write a book on one day, we returned to our resort via Varkala beach.

PAPANASAM BEACH, VARKALA

While we were headed to Trivandrum Anu mentioned we were going to ‘Papanasam’; I was extremely excited thinking it was Guruji’s place of birth. It turned out to be a small temple on the beach we visited giving it the name. However, the beach turned out to be really beautiful so my disappointment was short lived.

After seeing Ajit's pictures of the moon all of us unanimously approved his new camera

TANGASSERI LIGHTHOUSE

The next evening we visited an old Lighthouse in Kollam. The sight from the top was awesome. A detailed write-up of it has been put up by Rajeev.

MEENAKSHI TEMPLE, MADURAI

The next morning we started our return trip via Madurai, where we halted a night to see the MEENAKSHI TEMPLE. Here the only dress code is that one should not wear a lungi or sleeveless clothes. We also went to visit Amma’s elder sister, who at 98 years of age is wrinkle free and charmed us all by her wit and presence of mind (as did her lovely daughter!).

Amma and Kochamma - Beauties with brains and brawn!

A neglected part of the temple premises taken over
by squatters and shopkeepers

South Tower of the unparalleled Meenakshi Temple

Inside the Temple👇

BRIHADISVARA TEMPLE (Big Temple) THANJAVUR

Our next halt was Thiruchirapally or Trichy from where it’s an hour’s drive to Thanjavur or Tanjore. 

The sight of the Kaveri made us cry. Please stop killing our Rivers!!

Rockeforte in Trichy

The Brihadiswara, built by Raja Raja Chola, between 1003 and 1010 AD, is the biggest temple in South India and is part of the UNESCO Heritage sites. Even after having seen the Meenakshi and the Padmanabha temples we were left awestruck by the magnificence of this temple. Braving the burning ground in the midday sun we hopped around admiring each figurine on the walls.

The Gopuram made of a single stone. Was it carried up? This temple left us marveling at many things

The armament looks like a gun!

Krishna and the Gopis

An Englishman? A thousand years ago somebody knew they would come? Or did some actually come?

A gallery of paintings on the outer wall of the temple depicting stories of the gods

Anu insisted we visit another temple as otherwise it is an ill omen. Half the fun of going to old temples is learning about the legends surrounding them. So we stopped at another little temple, which incidentally was closed, but it did ward off the evil eye for we had a roaring time driving back to Bangalore singing songs (mostly school anthems and hymns learnt in school) and feeling happy and light hearted after such a wonderful trip.

This ones for you Anu, for many more trips to come
- "bohu rasta baki achhe"

pictures contributed by all in the group
Check out the birds we saw

88888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888